Ophir misses at Tende well, offshore Tanzania

Ophir Energy plc has informed that its Tende-1 well in in East Pande licence offshore Tanzania, failed to find natural gas.

The well, drilled by the Deepsea Metro I drillship, was targeting gas in a lower Cretaceous sandstone reservoir with a mean prospective resource estimate of 2.38TCF at a 15% chance of success.

Accordint to the operational update, although gas traces were encountered in the upper strata of the primary objective, wireline logs confirmed that no moveable hydrocarbons were present in this prospect.

In the secondary Tikiti objective, the Tende-1 well encountered a gas bearing sandstone. Ophir said it would evaluate the wider impact of this find as it integrates the well results into its understanding of the remaining prospects in the East Pande block.

Ophir operates the East Pande licence and holds a 70% interest, the East Pande PSC is located between the coast and the significant gas discoveries in Blocks 1 and 2.

Following the Tende-1 well, the Deepsea Metro I drillship moved to Block 7 where the Mkuki-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 3,204m. The well targeted a Tertiary-aged stratigraphic prospect located in water depths of 1,648m and encountered a high quality sandstone sequence, but no hydrocarbons were present.

In a separate statement today, Ophir has informed it has agreed terms with Salamander Energy for a possible takeover offer.